KOPI LUWAK or CIVET COFFEE

The name of kopi luwak si originally from two words, kopi (coffee) and Luwak (Asian Palm Civet), an animal likes to eat berries and pulpy fruits such as from fig trees and palm. Kopi luwak is so famous in the world because of its origin, flavor, unusual production process and price.  

The origin of kopi luwak is closely connected with Indonesia history. In early 18 century, Dutch built spices plantation in their colony land in Dutch East Indies islands of Java and Sumatra, including Arabia coffee which was originally from Yemen and the farmers were Indonesian. To maximize the production, Dutch prohibited farmers to take the coffee beans from the farm and taste the famed coffee beverage. Then, the farmers saw a certain species of Musang or Luwak (Asian Palm Civet) consumed the coffee fruits, yet they secreted the coffee beans undigested on the soil. Seeing the coffee beans were left by Luwak, the farmers collected, cleaned, roasted, and ground them to make coffee beverage. The aromatic smell of civet coffee spread from locals to Dutch plantation owners and soon became their favorite.

The process to produce Kopi Luwak is unusual since the coffee must be eaten by Luwak (Civet) then secreted with its feces first before human takes part into it. A research by a food scientist Massimo Marcome at University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada showed that the civet’s endogenous digestive secretions seep into the beans when the beans are in Civet’s abdomen. The secretions carry proteolytic enzymes which break down the beans’ proteins, decrease peptides and amino acid. Then, the hypothesis showed this shift in numbers and kinds of proteins in beans bring unique flavor, aromatic and lower beans’ bitterness. Maybe, people think kopi luwak is disgusting. But, do not worry about the safety of this coffee. Massimo Marcome found that after the thorough washing, levels of harmful organisms were insignificant. After that, roasting at high temperature made the beans safer.

The price of kopi luwak is so expensive, approximately US $100 to $600 per pound. But, if the coffee beans are eaten by wild civet like in Vietnam, the coffee is sold at $6600 per kilogram or $3000 per pound. In some places in the world such as in Indonesia, Australia, Japan, and England the coffee is sold per cup. In April 2008, Sloane Square in London sold a cup of kopi luwak at $79. Consequently, because of its rarity, rich flavor, unusual production process, and origin, kopi luwak has been becoming the most expensive coffee in the world since colonial time. (AFIF IM)

MOBILE PHONE AND TEENAGERS

Nowadays all people in different ages, social status, jobs, life style, have mobile phones. At first mobile phone was used just for dialing and communicating with others which was in separated places. The first mobile phone was just transferring sound which then this gadget had been developed by some mobile companies so that many futuristic features such as MMS, SMS, games, internet connection, video streaming, and other sophisticated features were available. Consequently, in these globalizations era teenagers take benefits of the modern features of mobile phone.

Today’s teenagers realize that the existence of mobile phone is as same as the existence of clothes for them. The cloth in social theory is one of human’s primary needs which must be fulfilled whatever the way should be taken. On the other hand cloth is part of fashion, mode, and life style which changes every season, time, and era. Cloth makes teenagers follow the fashion so that they can be the center of attention and have important role in their social community. Furthermore, teenagers need to update their image by following the newest fashion. At the time, mobile phone has same position as cloth, teenagers will follow the development of mobile phone technology and try to update their old mobile phone with the new one, the modern one, and match with recent mode and mobile phone trend. Then, it can be said that nowadays mobile phone is teenagers’ primary need. To meet the need of mobile phone, many ways have been done by teenagers, such as: asking their parents or boyfriend to buy a new mobile phone for them, depositing pocket money as much as they can do, or doing part time job to collect additional saving for their future new mobile phone. One of the worst fact teenagers do to meet their need of mobile phone is they are willing not to go to canteen to eat, stay talking with friends, and save their pocket money in order to buy the newest mobile phone.

The needs of mobile phone for teenagers have some reasons; one of them is teenagers’ needs to exist in case of cyber world relationship with their friends. Cyber world in this case can be in the form of making call, sending SMS (short message service), or any other social networking facilities which are provided. Teenagers with high economic standard, they usually like to maintain their social communication by making a call which basically needs more charge than other cyber facilities. But, nowadays teenagers do not need to be much worried or burden since there are competition among communication operators which cause the call charge cheaper than before. Teenagers with middle and low economic standard prefer to maintain their social communication by SMS. Though, some high economic standard teenagers sometimes use SMS too. SMS is a cheap and easy facility for teenagers which can be used to make short conversation, greet friends, or just to say hello or good night. Since teenagers in a decade have used to send SMS to friends, the mobile phone vendors have created the newest mobile phone technology which is provided with QWERTY keypad. For most teenagers QWERTY keypad makes them easier to type the letter in mobile phone and makes them type their SMS faster. Furthermore, the amount of SMS which is produced by QWERTY mobile phone is more the SMS produced by Candy Bar keypad mobile phone. Hence, QWERTY keypad mobile phone has become new trend since 2009.

In the past three years, teenagers have been infected by some new social networking virus called Facebook or FB and Twitter. Though some years ago there was other social network virus named Friendster, but the teenagers’ interest on social networking stronger and being trend at the time FB come to their social communication world. Many teenagers feel that they cannot live separated with their FB. They need to check their wall in FB, update their FB status, comment their friends’ status, upload their recent photograph; they will do these at least once a day. Since FB and Twitter have become a lifestyle, this condition makes the existence of these two features in mobile phone is very important. To satisfy the customers, in this case are teenagers, the vendors of mobile phone produce some types of mobile phones which are provided with FB and Twitter software so that customers will browse and use FB and twitter easily without a must to go to internet shop. With this ease, teenagers will exist more for their friends in cyber communication world. Moreover, teenagers that like to do chatting and communicating with friends in FB or twitter via mobile phone, they will be addicted with their mobile phone since they will feel that their friends are in the gadget.    

Mobile phone is as part of lifestyle for teenagers of course it cannot be separated from value of prestige. The word prestige is meant as pride, special position, or showing high social status of someone. For some teenagers, having a new popular brand mobile phone is a prestige. Some brands of mobile phones which are still in trend in years 2011 are iPhone, Nokia, and Blackberry (BB). Teenagers proud to have those three mobile phone bands are because they provide latest and futuristic features in their hardware such as their camera, unbreakable chase, QWERTY keypad or touch screen, and many sophisticated software such as multimedia, non-cable connection, games, and some social networking features. On the other side, it cannot be neglected that those mobile phones with popular brand are in expensive price as the compensation for the special features in them. Higher the price of mobile phone teenagers’ have, higher the value of prestige and luxurious of they will get. For some teenagers who have Blackberry mobile phone, the prestige is not only because of the price, indirectly they exclusively create their groups by using one of Blackberry feature, it is Blackberry messenger. The users of Blackberry can communicate with other users of BB exclusively without being interfered by other mobile phone brands. In addition, when the users of BB messenger change PIN with other user, the users will have additional prestige while other teenagers who do not have BB cannot make exclusive communication with them. Also, when teenagers are updating their status in FB or Twitter, those three popular mobile phone brands increase the prestige of their status. If the users update the status with iPhone or Blackberry mobile phone, then their FB status will be noted with “Update via iPhone” or “Update via Blackberry”. Consequently, their friends who see the note below their friends’ status will think that their friends have mobile phone with sophisticated features and expensive price.

            In conclusion, mobile phone has become valuable gadget for all teenagers. Since, it helps them in many ways such as in communication (calling, sending SMS and MMS), browsing information from internet, managing schedules, and for further purpose, brand new mobile phones can increase the owners’ social status. (Afif I.M.)

CHATTING DURING CLASS TIME

Have you ever feel so bored when you are studying in class? If it is yes, what did you do then? Did you decide to ask to your lecturer and said that you needed to go to the toilet? Maybe there were some other ways like: Talking with other friends in slow voice (Gossiping), drawing caricature, mistreating your friends, or may be doing secret chatting on a small piece of paper. Based on the observation, many college students especially girl like to do the last way.   

Secret chatting on a small piece of paper was a new thing for me. One day I came to my class and so do all my friends. We would have the most boring class of our all course schedule. But, we did not have another choice rather than we had to come and enjoyed the class. The lecturer came and the class was started. At first, everything walked smoothly and all my friends seemed cool and paid much attention to the lecturer’s explanation. Then, the lecturer began to write on the whiteboard with his marker and we copied what were written on the board. After 15 minutes passed, I found something strange, while the lecturer were not writing, explaining, or asking important materials, my friends seemed very busy with writing on their book. They were looked so serious and interested. Sometimes, I saw they were smiling in glance and hold their laugh. “What are they doing” I asked to my friend who sat on my right. He answered, “They are chatting”. I was surprised. So, I planned to do spying on them and saw what they were doing.

After sometimes I did the spying, I get some information about what they were talking on chatting. The topic of their chatting were so varieties, such as talking about one of my friends new girlfriend, new place for hang out, sharing about personal story, making plan to go somewhere or hanging out together after getting classes, or maybe gossiping about the lecturer who was teaching in front of them. On the other side, they sometimes did chatting because they just want to share their feeling that they were so bored and need friends to relieve them from this condition. Moreover, they just want to do silly thing to interact other students to pay attention on them. (AIM)

SMART VACATION: OYSTER MUSHROOM CULTIVATION

Where will you go for vacation? Will you go to mall, Supermarket, or some famous tourism resort, such as: Jatim Park, World Desney, and national botanical garden in Bogor. Those are all the places which may be the most chosen destination for the vacation. So, what did you get from that place? Of course, because the vacations are for fun, then you will get your fun. Maybe the only “Fun” you got from your vacation. Then, you only fed you psychological side not both psychological and intelligential sides. In consequences, it is important to be a smart vacation planner.

I have an alternative that you may choose as your destination for vacation. You can go to “Oyster Musroom Cultivation” on the weekend. This Mushroom cultivation is placed on Jl. Raya Pendem 54, Pendem,   Malang.  This place is easy to be reached while it is on the side of the main road which connects Surabaya city and Batu city. When you are driving along this street from Surabaya after passing Karangploso, please pay attention on your left side than you will find a big banner is hung in front of a blue house. On that banner there is a writing “Jamur Tiram Segar (Petik Sendiri) dan Log Media”. Then, you can move down from your car and take a walk into the gate of the house.

This cultivation place provides many benefits for you, your friends and family if you choose it as your vacation destination. One of them is you will be met by the owner whose name is Mr. Aruman. He will guide you, your friends and family to his mushroom cultivation factory. In that place, he will tell you about the history of the building of his mushroom cultivation factory, the mushroom regeneration system, the life of mushroom, and the steps of cultivating Oyster mushroom. On the other hand, you can walk around the factory to see directly the process to cultivate mushroom and meet the workers there. Moreover, the owner will give you a chance to practice to make “LOG” or “Mushroom life media” and also you can practice spreading water from a water pot to keep the humidity of LOG or mushroom media. I think it is good because you will get new experience in on your hand to cultivate mushroom. In the end, you can find the some products which are made from mushroom near the mushroom cultivation factory. Also, you can buy fresh mushroom directly from the factory in low price. You only have to spend Rp. 2.500,- per LOG and Rp. 10.000,- per kg of oyster mushroom. Get your smart vacation now!    

Smart tips for cultivating oyster mushroom from Mr. Aruman:

a.      Don’t be afraid of bacteria. If on the top of your LOG there is a black spot (Bacteria), you have not to bring it to the rubbish bin. Just cut the part of your log which contain black spot and fill again with the new seed.

b.      Place your LOG in shadowed or humid place. It is better if you cover your LOG with paranet (Black web).

c.       Don’t forget to spray water three times a day just to keep it humidity

d.      Don’t be often to see your mushroom because your mushroom will grow well if it is in a closed area and free from bacteria and virus.

Simple steps to cultivate oyster mushroom:

a.       Prepare the media or place to cultivate the seed of oyster, such as: plastics (size 1 kg), wood powder, the seed of oyster mushroom, ring rubber, small cutting paper, water, and water sprayer. Prepare also the utility to burn the wood powder, such as: big barrel, big stove, and gas tank.

b.      First, sterilize the wood powder by filling it to the big barrel which already on the big stove with fire.

c.       Second, pour the sterile wood powder on the mat and mix it with the seed of oyster mushroom. It will be better if you mix them by your hand as being said by Mr. Aruman

d.      Third, fill the plastics with the mixing and close it with small cutting paper which is tided by ring rubber. So, it is called as LOG

e.      Fourth, keep it in the self. Remember! That the self should be less lighten and better if it is humid.

f.        Fifth, spray the LOG 3 times thrice a day with natural water.

g.       Finally, after one week you can see the oyster mushroom leaves grow